Enhancing Security in Open Source Software: CISA's Strategic Roadmap

The "CISA Open Source Software Security Roadmap" outlines the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) approach to enhancing the security of Open Source Software (OSS). Here's a summary of its key points:

Overview

• OSS is foundational to critical infrastructure, with a significant portion of codebases containing open source code. It's vital for CISA to understand, manage, and mitigate risks related to OSS in federal government and critical infrastructure​​.

Vision

• CISA aims for a future where technology, underpinned by secure and resilient OSS, drives growth and innovation. This includes empowering OSS developers, ensuring OSS consumers use and contribute to these projects responsibly, and providing tools for secure usage and curation of OSS packages​​.

Threat Model

• CISA identifies two primary threats to OSS:
  1. Widespread consequences of vulnerabilities in widely used OSS (e.g., Log4Shell).
  2. Supply-chain attacks leading to downstream software compromise, including compromised developer accounts, malicious code insertions, and exploitation of developer errors​​.

Goals and Objectives

1. Supporting OSS Security: CISA aims to build a secure and resilient OSS ecosystem, focusing on reducing risks and improving the broader OSS security. This involves understanding the OSS ecosystem and collaborating with OSS communities​​.
2. Understanding OSS Usage and Risks: CISA will identify and assess OSS software prevalence to understand dependencies in federal government and critical infrastructure, thereby prioritizing activities to mitigate risks​​.
3. Reducing Federal Risks: Focusing on the federal government's OSS usage, CISA plans to develop tools and processes for secure OSS management. This includes integrating tools into CI/CD processes to assess and address OSS risks​​.
4. Hardening the OSS Ecosystem: Efforts will be made to increase the security and resilience of the broader OSS ecosystem, particularly focusing on critical OSS components. This includes advancing the use and standardization of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) within OSS supply chains​​.

Overall, the roadmap sets forth a comprehensive strategy for enhancing OSS security, balancing the need for innovation with the imperative of securing critical digital infrastructure.